Ben Carson, a physician with no political or administrative background, who somehow was (briefly) a 'viable' candidate for President during the 2016 campaign, got this job as a political payoff. Arguably his medical background might have made him a likelihood for Surgeon General, or Center for Disease Control, or some section of HHS, but it looks like he was given HUD to both humiliate him and to hobble the mission of HUD.

I suspect that the bloated furniture budget was not entirely his own idea but that it was at least encouraged by flunkies who did not have his best interests at heart.

It is as if Trump, desiring to eliminate various government departments, such as EPA, Energy, HUD, and Education, has come up with a strategy - instead of directly proposing their termination or defunding, simply put them in the hands of hostile or incompetent appointees.

The only other person I know of who was considered for HUD is also a black man. Trump associates welfare and other programs to help the poor to be primarily black issues because he seems to believe that all black people are poor and all poor people are black. Where else does a president who is out to prove he is not racist actually put a black person in his administration? In charge of HUD and in charge of some kind of outreach program to prove to persons of color that he is all about diversity.

"I know that human being and fish can coexist peacefully"
--- George W Bush

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson left Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) frustrated on Wednesday after the two went back and forth over whether Carson should replace an LGBT nondiscrimination guidance that was taken down after he took over the department.

Quigley questioned Carson about his agency's removal of guidelines outlining nondiscrimination protections for LGBT people during a House Appropriations Committee hearing, saying removing the guidelines hurts the LGBT community.
<snip their exchange>

"We are all now more stupid than we were when we came in the room today sir, thank you," Quigley quipped, later tweeting the exchange:

Ben Carson Wants To Evict Families With Undocumented Immigrants From Public Housing
Carson says the new rule will reduce long waitlists for public housing for citizens. Housing advocates say all it will do is split up families with mixed immigration status.

The Trump administration is pushing a new policy to prevent undocumented family members of US citizens and documented immigrants from living with them in public housing.

“Thanks to @realDonaldTrump's leadership, we are putting America's most vulnerable first. Our nation faces affordable housing challenges and hundreds of thousands of citizens are waiting for many years on waitlists to get housing assistance,” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson wrote in a tweet on Thursday, announcing the administration’s proposed rule.

The Trump administration’s proposal seeks to evict undocumented family members from public housing, rather than continuing the practice of adjusting their families’ benefits to exclude them. The rule was sent to Congress for a 15-day review period on Wednesday, and will then be available for public comment before it can move ahead.

The proposed rule is part of a much broader Trump administration crackdown on immigration, including at HUD. As BuzzFeed News reported in December, the department has been quietly denying federal housing loans to DACA recipients. Two weeks ago, Carson testified at a Congressional hearing that he didn’t know why DACA recipients were being turned away for federally-backed mortgages.

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

.@SecretaryCarson's level of condescension in this clip (starting around the 2:30 mark) is beyond belief. These people really think Congress has no business conducting oversight of what they're doing at all.

I understand the general public not knowing what a REO is or defined as a 'bank REO' is. When a bank takes back a property through foreclosure, they get perks (thanks to politicians), such as 'safe harbor' which allows them to stiff other lien holders at pennies on the dollar -- which, in turn, escalates/amplifies the financial damage of the loan default into the community. Carson has no clue and he sounds half-baked.

We are told by LE: If you see something, say something. -- I agree.If you see something, video record it, uploaded it, and say something!

Possibly. But, ya know, I don't want the teenager neon in charge at the upper levels of our government. I can take it on the run, maybe, but I just can't fight this feeling anymore that we might be doing it wrong.

We are told by LE: If you see something, say something. -- I agree.If you see something, video record it, uploaded it, and say something!